Is this one of the worst movies of its decade? Had there been anything as dull and lumbering since the late 1920s musicals? The title number, excerpted in THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT, with Eleanor Powell banging out a wondrously complex tap routine, promises a film of some charm. But audiences must proceed with caution. Nelson Eddy is a miserable lead here, miscast (spectacularly so) as a West Point football star, and grappling with a ludicrous script that makes Fox musicals of the 40s seem like ALL ABOUT EVE. He has never looked so foolish on screen (though he's in good voice), and there is just no moving past this. Then there is Frank Morgan as the king, bringing everything to a halt with that awful befuddlement routine of his (one wonders, can it be the same wonderful actor from THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER?), matched only by irritating Tommy Bond, who needs to be shipped off to that amusement park island in Pinocchio.
Eleanor Powell can't carry these 2 hours (feels like 9) by herself. Her numbers are good enough to NEARLY make this worth sitting through, though I swear I'd break my purist rules and approve an edited version that only contained the musical numbers. Note that Cole Porter's lovely score is very poorly used, and one is likely to forget that "In The Still of The Night" even came from this film it's so indifferently performed.
Should you venture in, notice the humongous nightclub set early in the film...a bizarre, avant-garde concoction from outer space that resembles nothing else in the history of set design (not in a good way).
Eleanor Powell can't carry these 2 hours (feels like 9) by herself. Her numbers are good enough to NEARLY make this worth sitting through, though I swear I'd break my purist rules and approve an edited version that only contained the musical numbers. Note that Cole Porter's lovely score is very poorly used, and one is likely to forget that "In The Still of The Night" even came from this film it's so indifferently performed.
Should you venture in, notice the humongous nightclub set early in the film...a bizarre, avant-garde concoction from outer space that resembles nothing else in the history of set design (not in a good way).